American Revolution | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 17, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Battle of Bunker Hill

Following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, colonial forces from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island formed a New England army to surround and contain the British forces occupying Boston.

To prevent British soldiers from conducting further attacks on the countryside after the march to Lexington and Concord, 20,000 provincial militiamen encircle Boston in the spring of 1775. The Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester Heights, commanding both the city of Boston and Boston harbor, lie abandoned. This has been referred to as the Siege of Boston.

Hoping to make the British “masters of these heights,” General Gage, in conference with Major Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne, plans to seize the neglected positions before the colonists do so.

News of Gage’s intent filters across from Boston and down from New Hampshire on June 15. Acting quickly on this intelligence, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety orders General Artemas Ward, commander of the colonial militia surrounding Boston, to race the British to the Charlestown peninsula, capture Bunker Hill, and then seize the Dorchester hills.

Colonel William Prescott and General Israel Putnam were the ranking officers in the expedition to Charlestown, however Prescott, being from Massachusetts, commanded the majority of the men.

The following day, Ward orders Colonel William Prescott, with the aid of one thousand colonial troops, to take and fortify Bunker Hill. Unknown to the British, Prescott and his troops arrive at the Charlestown peninsula that same night.

Prescott and other officers ultimately decide to bypass Bunker Hill, rising 110 feet and situated near the only route back to Cambridge, and instead give “orders to march” to Breed’s Hill, a smaller mount further south and within cannon range of Boston and British ships in the harbor. They built an earthen fortress 160-feet long and 30-feet high atop the hill. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

For generations many have argued over who ultimately chose where to fortify a position on the lower, more centrally located hill known today as “Breed’s Hill,” rather than the higher prominence known today as “Bunker Hill.”

But on that night, construction began sometime around midnight as hundreds of men with pickaxes and shovels constructed a fort atop the lower hill overlooking the settlement of Charlestown and the beaches along the Harbor. (NPS)

Astonished British generals wake on the morning of June 17 to discover the newly erected defenses. As the day continues, British ships bombard the untrained militia as they work, and Colonel Prescott walks the fortifications to raise morale. Thirsty and tired, the soldiers receive “no refreshment.” Back in Boston, Gage summons a war council.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, over 2,000 British soldiers, commanded by General Howe, land on the Charlestown shore. Continental snipers fire at the British as they march, and General Howe orders a combustible shell launched on Charlestown. Amid smoke and flames, local inhabitants flee their homes in order to escape “Charlestown’s dismal fate.”

From rooftops and hilltops, spectators watch Charlestown burn. The clear day affords views to residents as far off as Braintree, including Abigail Adams and eight-year-old John Quincy Adams, who later recalls,

“The year 1775 was the eighth year of my age. Among the first fruits of the War, was the expulsion of my father’s family from their peaceful abode in Boston, to take refuge in his and my native town of Braintree….”

“For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hostages, by any foraging or marauding detachment of men …”

“My father was separated from his family, on his way to attend the same continental Congress, and there my mother, with her children lived in unintermitted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the 17th. of June lighted the fires in Charlestown.”

“I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker’s hill and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled with them my own, at the fall of Warren a dear friend of my father, and a beloved Physician to me.” (John Quincy Adams, National Archives)

British troops headed uphill, where they are frustrated by fences, pits, and tall grass. In dust and heat, the continental militia wait behind their walls. They hold fire until the British are in within 150 feet of the fortifications.

(Contrary to urban legend, there’s no evidence anyone ordered the men to hold their fire until they saw “the whites” of the enemies’ eyes. The writer Parson Weems seems to have invented this decades later.)

The Americans opened fire at about 50 yards, much too distant to see anyone’s eyes. However, one commander did tell his men to wait until they could see the splash guards – called half-gaiters – that British soldiers wore around their calves.) (Smithsonian)

“Heavy and severe Fire” decimates the thick British ranks. Recoiling from the first attack, General Howe relies on “the Bravery of the King’s Troops”.

He immediately ordered his stumbling and disordered soldiers to make a second charge, this time only at the hill and rail fence. Again the colonists slaughter the King’s troops with their fire.

An hour passed as the British recover from the two attacks. They receive 400 new troops from Boston. A third time, General Howe orders his soldiers, with the help of the reinforcements, to charge the breastworks and the rail fence.

Prescott’s men again waited until the last minute to open fire. This time, they are running out of ammunition and are soon overrun by the British; then they fought with rocks and the butts of their muskets.

No longer able to withstand the British attack, Prescott’s men retreat north over the road to Cambridge, as General Stark’s New Hampshire troops cover them in the rear.

One of the last to abandon the fort on Breed’s Hill, Joseph Warren was killed as he retreats, and he was mourned with “the tears of multitudes.” In total, 140 colonists are dead and 271 are wounded. Before dark, the British again command the Charleston peninsula, though 226 British lie dead and 828 are wounded.

Despite renewed British control of the peninsula, colonial forces still trap the British in Boston. As supply issues and shortages plague them, the British prepare for further military commitment to defeat the “poor and ignorant” colonists. Meanwhile, the colonies scramble to assemble more soldiers.

Britain replaced General Gage with General Howe in early October 1775, and two weeks after the battle at Breed’s Hill, on July 2, 1775, George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Getting the Names Straight

Popularly known as ‘The Battle of Bunker Hill,’ as noted, the battle actually occurred on Breed’s Hill.

The National Park Service, on their Boston National Historical Park website, notes that Historian Richard Ketchum stated,

To the south of [Bunker Hill], and connected to it by a lower, sloping ridge, was a height of land not sufficiently distinguished to bear any particular name. Some called it Charlestown Hill; others, considering it an appendage of Bunker Hill, referred to it by that title;

while some of the local people, out of deference to a farmer whose cattle grazed there, called it Breed’s. Its steep western flank, covered with orchards and gardens, leveled out near the settlement of Charlestown.

By 1775, the population of Charlestown hovered around 2,000 to 3,000 people with 400 structures in it, mostly situated on the south shore facing Boston. Bunker and Breed’s Hills, named after George Bunker and Ebenezer Breed, were mostly undeveloped with some farmhouses and pastures.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, also called the Battle of Breed’s Hill, (June 17, 1775), was the first major battle of the American Revolution, fought in Charlestown (now part of Boston) during the Siege of Boston.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Battle of Bunker Hill:

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill.pdf

June 14, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Continental Army

The colonies are abuzz following the adjournment of the First Continental Congress. As colonists deliberated and implemented Congress’s mandates, they also pondered the future of their relationship with Great Britain. How will the King respond to Congress’s petition? Will the proposed Association (a comprehensive non-importation and non-exportation scheme) force Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts? Colonists wait only a few short months for an answer.

On February 3, 1775 Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, reporting among other things, “The die is cast … but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative”.

Forming the Continental Army and Naming Its Commander in Chief

America’s Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775 with exchanges of musketry between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington and Concord, as many delegates were already enroute to Philadelphia, where Congress was scheduled to convene on May 10, 1775.

When the delegates to the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, they soon learned that armed men commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York.

The New England colonists reacted to this news by raising four separate armies. With remarkable speed, committees of correspondence spread the traumatic news of Lexington and Concord beyond the borders of Massachusetts.

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted “the American continental army” after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day.

On June 15, Congress unanimously chose George Washington. Washington had been active in the military planning committees of Congress and by late May had taken to wearing his old uniform.

Preparing the Continental Army to Go to War

Washington was also to prepare and to send to Congress an accurate strength return of that army. On the other hand, instructions to keep the army obedient, diligent, and disciplined were rather vague. The Commander in Chief’s right to make strategic and tactical decisions on purely military grounds was limited only by a requirement to listen to the advice of a council of war.

Within a set troop maximum, including volunteers, Washington had the right to determine how many men to retain, and he had the power to fill temporarily any vacancies below the rank of colonel. Permanent promotions and appointments were reserved for the colonial governments to make.

The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations “for the government of the army.”

The delegates’ correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and the forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.

By the third week in June delegates were referring to 15,000 at Boston. Meanwhile, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 forced many delegates to rethink their position on reconciliation. As accounts of the battle reach Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson are drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. John Adams calls the document a spirited Manifesto.

When on June 19 Congress requested the governments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to forward to Boston “such of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the troops agreed to be raised by the New England Colonies,” it gave a clear indication of its intent to adopt the regional army. Discussions the next day indicated that Congress was prepared to support a force at Boston twice the size of the British garrison, and that it was unwilling to order any existing units to be disbanded.

Congress then took steps for issuing paper money to finance the army, and on June 30 it adopted the Articles of War.

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was an insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies that won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.

The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.

By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.

At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 revolutionaries under arms throughout the country.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced.

Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes.

An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)

Click the following links to general summaries about the Continental Army:

Click to access Continental-Army-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Continental-Army.pdf

June 1, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Liberty Bell

In the 18th century, citizens across the colonies depended on bells to communicate important news. Bells might call them to put out fires, notify them of an approaching merchant ship, warn them about a possible attack by Indians or enemy soldiers, or tell them to gather to hear news important to the community. (NPS)

The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly had the State House Bell made in 1751 to mark the 50-year anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, which served as Pennsylvania’s original Constitution.

Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris first ordered a bell for the bell tower of the State House of Pennsylvania (now known as Independence Hall) from the Whitechapel Foundry in London. That bell cracked on the first test ring.

Local Pennsylvania metalworkers John Pass and John Stow melted down that bell and cast a new one in Philadelphia. It is this bell that would ring to call lawmakers to their meetings and the townspeople together to hear the reading of the news. (NPS)

The following King James version Bible verse (Leviticus 25:10) is inscribed on the Bell: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

This verse refers to the ‘Jubilee’, or the instructions to the Israelites to return property and free slaves every 50 years. (NPS) Also included is information about the Pennsylvania Assembly and the Bell’s maker. (Constitution Center)

The bell originally rang in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House in 1753. It was in the Assembly Room of this building that members of the Second Continental Congress debated and signed the Declaration of Independence.

While there is evidence that the bell rang to mark the Stamp Act tax and its repeal, the bell probably didn’t ring on July 4, 1776. A magazine writer in 1847 made up the story of the bell ringing on the first Independence Day. (NPS & Constitution Center)

Once the Congress approved the Declaration of Independence document on July 4, it was sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the Dunlap Broadside were printed.

Then on July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon of Philadelphia read a printed Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time on what is now called Independence Square. The bell may also not have rung on that day, as well. (NPS & Constitution Center).

It is known that bells in the city of Philadelphia were ringing to celebrate the public announcement of the Declaration of Independence. According to the Independence Hall Association, the statehouse steeple was under repair at the time, making it unlikely for the Liberty Bell to be in use. But with no contemporary accounts, we just don’t know.

In 1777, the Bell was removed from Philadelphia under armed guard and taken to Allentown, Pa., where it was hidden in a church. The fear was the British would melt the Bell and use it to make cannons. It came back to Philadelphia the following year. (Constitution Center)

Though known as the State House Bell, the Biblical inscription became a herald of liberty, and provided a rallying cry for abolitionists, who first referred to the bell as the ‘Liberty Bell’ in 1835, years before that name was widely adopted. (Philadelphia Visitor Center)

While there are a lot of subsequent stories and statements naming dates, no one recorded when or why the Liberty Bell first cracked. But the most likely explanation is that a narrow split developed in the early 1840s after nearly 90 years of hard use.

In 1846, when the city of Philadelphia decided to repair the bell prior to George Washington’s birthday holiday, metal workers widened the thin crack to prevent its farther spread and restore the tone of the bell using a technique called ‘stop drilling’. The wide ‘crack’ in the Liberty Bell is actually the repair job. There are over 40 drill bit marks in that wide ‘crack’.

The repair was not successful; the Public Ledger newspaper reported that the repair failed when another fissure developed. This second crack, running from the abbreviation for ‘Philadelphia’ up through the word ‘Liberty’, silenced the bell forever. (NPS)

“‘These is, of course, the large crack that everyone knows about. It is also full of things called ‘shrinkage’ and ‘porosity.” (Mike Modes) These are soft spots created when metal cooled after casting. They were common in metals in the 1750s.” (Star Bulletin, Nov 27, 1975)

Millions of Americans became familiar with the bell in popular culture through George Lippard’s 1847 fictional story ‘Ring, Grandfather, Ring’, when the bell came to symbolize pride in a new nation. Beginning in the late 1800s, the Liberty Bell traveled across the country for display at expositions and fairs, stopping in towns small and large along the way. (NPS)

In the 1950s, Hawai‘i had two Liberty Bells …

In 1950, a Liberty Bell replica was presented to the Territory “by the US Treasury Department and toured the Neighbor Islands on US savings bond campaigns.” (Star Bulletin, Aug 11, 1959) (A significant number of other replicas have been made by others.)

The Treasury Department created 55 replica Liberty Bells for the “Save Your Independence” bond drive in 1950. Bells were delivered to States, Territories and the District of Columbia to support the bond program. (US Treasury)

“The bell, made in France, is an exact replica of the original Liberty Bell in every detail, except the crack. It is of the same size and weight (2,080 pounds), made of the same materials and by the same process as the original.” (Star Bulletin, Jun 26, 1950)

“Island residents along with their fellow Americans on the Mainland are sounding a new note of independence on the Liberty Bell in a US Savings Bond campaign that will reach its climax on the Fourth of July.”

“Today, its replicas in the American States and Territories are proclaiming the independence of the individual to be had through orderly savings that will provide him with freedom from want in his declining years.” (Advertiser, May 23, 1950)

“Honolulans had their first hearing of the sounds of the Liberty Bell as Hawaii’s replica was rung 49 times at Iolani Palace this morning and again at a US savings bonds rally at King and Bishop street.” (Star Bulletin, Jun 27, 1950)

Starting on February 9, 1951 at Lincoln school, “Hawaii’s replica of the famous Liberty Bell will start a 97 day tour to schools on Oahu. … The bell will remain at each public and private school on the island for a 24 hour periods. Each school is to present an appropriate program in connection with the visit.” (Star Bulletin, Jan 11, 1951)

“Last summer, at least ten million Mainlanders heard and/or saw Hawaii’s 3,000 pound replica of the Liberty Bell. … This was, indeed, small service relative to the total statehood effort of many years duration. … Hundreds of pictures were taken, and the bell rang more than 50,000 times.” (Advertiser, Mar 3, 1959)

The bell went to bolster Hawaii’s unsuccessful bid for Statehood last year. (Apparently, sometime after 1959, a crack was drilled into the Hawai‘i bell.) Hawai‘i’s replica Liberty Bell is on the front lawn of the Hawaii State Capitol building facing Beretania.

Around 1953, someone used adhesive tape to simulate the crack in the Hawai‘i bell; in 1953, that was replaced by a “streak of bronze paint outlining exactly the split” in the original bell. (Sat Bulletin, July 14, 1953) Later, a simulated crack was drilled int to the Hawai‘i replica.

Then, later in the decade, a second Liberty Bell came to Hawai‘i … “The newest thing in commercial passenger planes chased the sun across the Pacific over the week end and didn’t lose by much. The spinning world moves the sun’s rays westward from Honolulu to Tokyo in five hours.”

“Pan American World Airways’ big new plane made the 4,200-mile chase in 9 hours and 33 minutes, Including 48 minutes on the ground at Wake Island.

The plane put into commercial Pacific service with this flight is the intercontinental Boeing 707 with 2,000 miles more range and greater size and seating capacity that the 707s in use before this. The flight was a milestone in aviation …”

The “plane is [named] the ‘Liberty Bell’ and it’s been ringing around the world. It’s been to Moscow (carrying the press for Nixon’s visit), to London, Seattle, Tokyo (from San Francisco via the Great Circle), no-stop Seattle to Rome, Hawaii twice.” (Geroge Chaplin, Advertiser, Sep 7, 1959)

Click the links for more on the Liberty Bell:

Click to access Liberty-Bell-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Liberty-Bell.pdf

May 27, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Second Continental Congress

The first document ratified by Congress – the Suffolk Resolve – was carried to Great Britain in October 1774. In response, King George III opened Parliament on November 30, 1774 with a speech condemning Massachusetts and declaring the colony to be in a state of rebellion.

As news of the speech spread throughout Massachusetts and the American colonies, residents shared their hopes, fears, and opinions with one another.

On February 3, 1775 Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, reporting among other things, “The die is cast … but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative”.

Many delegates were skeptical about changing the king’s attitude towards the colonies, but believed that every opportunity should be exhausted to de-escalate the conflict before taking more radical act.

War Breaks Out Before The Second Continental Congress Convenes

Instead, war broke out in Massachusetts (Lexington and Concord) on April 19, 1775. Many delegates are already enroute to Philadelphia, where Congress was scheduled to convene on May 10, 1775.

For the first few months of this conflict, the Patriots had carried on their struggle in an ad-hoc and uncoordinated manner. At this point, the Second Continental Congress intervened and assumed leadership of the war effort. They resolved to prepare for war but continued to seek reconciliation.

Notable additions of attendees include Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Lyman Hall, the lone delegate representing a single parish in Georgia.

In Massachusetts, the Provincial Congress formed when military governor Thomas Gage dissolved the legislature in 1774. Arguing that “General Gage hath actually levied war” against them, Massachusetts patriots hope Congress will suggest a mechanism for creating a civil government to manage the colony.

As British authority crumbled in the colonies, the Continental Congress effectively took over as the de facto national government, thereby exceeding the initial authority granted to it by the individual colonial governments. However, the local groups that had formed to enforce the colonial boycott continued to support the Congress.

On June 14, the Second Continental Congress created a continental army and appointed George Washington commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 forced many delegates to rethink their position on reconciliation. As accounts of the battle reach Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson are drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. John Adams calls the document a spirited Manifesto.

Before sending Washington to Boston to meet the troops in July, Congress adopted a comprehensive set of military regulations designed to marshal the troops.

In addition, on June 22, 1775, it approved the first release of $1 million in bills of credit (paper currency), Issued in defense of American liberty, Congress authorized the printing of another $1 million in July. (By the end of 1775, Congress will authorize a total of $6 million bills of credit.)

Olive Branch Petition

Unwilling to completely abandon their hope for peace, the Olive Branch Petition was adopted by Congress on July 5, 1775 to be sent to the King as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens.

After a flurry of activity in June and July, Congress adjourned for a brief respite on August 2, 1775.

William Penn carried the Olive Branch Petition to London, but the king refused to see him.

Second Continental Congress Reconvenes

When the body reconvened on September 13, 1775 three new delegates representing the entire colony of Georgia are present.

As Massachusetts had done in 1775, individual colonies seek the advice of Congress. John Adams explains his own opinions on the “divine science of politicks” and the most advantageous structure of government in the pamphlet Thoughts on Government.

In February 1776, Congress received news of the Prohibitory Act, which subjects all American vessels to confiscation by the Royal Navy. In March 1776, Congress sends a message of its own to British shipping interests: enemy vessels beware!

Opposition to independence is steadily waning in Congress, thanks in part to the popular support. Common Sense is published in Philadelphia in January 1776. Offering “simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense,” the pamphlet is a publishing success that stirs debate on the subject of independence.

On April 6, 1776, Congress responded to Parliament’s actions by opening American ports to all foreign ships except British vessels. Reports from American agent Arthur Lee in London also served to support the revolutionary cause.

Lee’s reports suggested that France was interested in assisting the colonies in their fight against Great Britain. With a peaceful resolution increasingly unlikely in 1775, Congress began to explore other diplomatic channels and dispatched congressional delegate Silas Deane to France in April of 1776.

As Congress continued to mobilize for war, delegates also debate the possibilities of foreign assistance and the “intricate and complicated subject” of American trade.

Deane succeeded in securing informal French support by May. By then, Congress was increasingly conducting international diplomacy and had drafted the Model Treaty with which it hoped to seek alliances with Spain and France.

Action for the Establishment of Alternative Structures of Authority

In late 1775 and early 1776, the provincial congresses of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Virginia asked the Second Continental Congress for advice on what to do about the unsettled condition of government caused by the outbreak of war with Britain.

Congress agreed that there was a crisis of authority, but recommended only the convening of popularly elected assemblies to set up interim measures for exercising governmental authority to last until the establishment of a reconciliation with Great Britain.

In the congressional debates on these requests, John Adams of Massachusetts and like-minded colleagues urged Congress to act more decisively by recommending the establishment of alternative structures of authority as early as possible before any final break with Britain.

Conservative delegates such as John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and James Duane and John Jay of New York argued in opposition that adopting new forms of government would be tantamount to declaring independence and would prevent reconciliation with the mother country.

It was not until May 10, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress finally adopted the following resolution drafted by John Adams. Five days later Congress accepted a preamble to the act also written by Adams.

Declaration of Independence

Many delegates fear their actions – such as the creation of new civil governments and the search for potential foreign allies – are tantamount to declaring independence. By June, delegates consider a resolution on the matter of independence itself

On July 4, 1776 the Congress took the important step of formally declaring the colonies’ independence from Great Britain.

In September, Congress adopted the Model Treaty, and then sent commissioners to France to negotiate a formal alliance. They entered into a formal alliance with France in 1778. Congress eventually sent diplomats to other European powers to encourage support for the American cause and to secure loans for the money-strapped war effort.

Congress and the British government made further attempts to reconcile, but negotiations failed when Congress refused to revoke the Declaration of Independence, both in a meeting on September 11, 1776, with British Admiral Richard Howe, and when a peace delegation from Parliament arrived in Philadelphia in 1778.

Instead, Congress spelled out terms for peace on August 14, 1779, which demanded British withdrawal, American independence, and navigation rights on the Mississippi River. The next month Congress appointed John Adams to negotiate such terms with England, but British officials were evasive.

The war raged on throughout this time.

The Second Congress continued to meet until March 1, 1781, when the Articles of Confederation that established a new national government for the United States took effect.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Second Continental Congress:

Click to access Second-Continental-Congress-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Second-Continental-Congress.pdf

May 10, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

250 Years Ago … Green Mountain Boys

Vermont was not one of the 13 colonies.

In 1609 French explorer Samuel de Champlain claimed part of the region for France. Several suggest French explorer Samuel de Champlain referred to it as “Verd Mont” (green mountains).

(However, Vermont Historical Society states, “The word Vermont (or alternate renderings) does not appear in the publications of Champlain, Des sauvages and Les Voyages (1613 and 1632 versions), or on the maps which he prepared or published.”) A Vermont lake is named for Champlain.

The state’s name comes from two French words vert (green) and mont (mountain), which explains Vermont’s nickname, the “Green Mountain State.” (Library of Congress)

Samuel de Champlain was followed by missionaries, traders, settlers, and soldiers who identified rivers and other physical features of the Champlain watershed.

Families from southern New England who settled in the ‘Grants’ (as the New Hampshire titled lands were known) created communities similar to the ones they had left behind. They were confident that if they moved their families, built farms, and worked the land, their claims would be justified.

They believed that the royal governments of New Hampshire and New York, representing the king, wouldn’t deny the rights of citizens who tamed the land, organized governments, paid taxes, and obeyed the laws.

When the ‘Yorkers’ (as the New York landholders were called) started to stake their claims, the troubles began. (Vermont Historical Society)

The Green Mountain Boys at present-day Bennington, Vermont, was an unauthorized militia organized to defend the property rights of local residents who had received land grants from New Hampshire.

New York, which then claimed present-day Vermont, disputed New Hampshire’s right to grant land west of the Green Mountains.

When a New York sheriff, leading 300 militiamen, attempted to take possession of Grants farms in 1771, he was met with resistance. A determined group of Bennington militia led by young firebrands Ethan Allen and Remember Baker blocked his efforts.

Several Grants towns then organized committees of safety and military companies to protect their interests against the Yorkers. These military groups called themselves “The New Hampshire Men” while New York authorities referred to them as the “Bennington Mob” and rioters.

By 1772, they were called the “Green Mountain Boys.”

Their leader Ethan Allen declared they were fighting for their “liberty, property, and life,”

“Those bloody law-givers know we are necessitated to oppose their execution of law, where it points directly at our property, or give up the same:”

“but there is one thing is matter of consolation to us, viz. that printed sentences of death will not kill us when we are at a distance; and if the executioners approach us,”

“they will be as likely to fall victims to death as we: and that person, or country of persons, are cowards indeed,”

“if they cannot as manfully fight for their liberty, property and life, as villains can do to deprive them thereof.” (A Vindication, Ethan Allen)

The Green Mountain Boys stopped sheriffs from enforcing New York laws and terrorized settlers who had New York grants, burning buildings, stealing cattle, and administering occasional floggings with birch rods.

Catamount Tavern

The Catamount Tavern was the gathering place of men who played vital roles in the creation of the state of Vermont. Built in the mid-1760s by Stephen Fay, one of Bennington’s original settlers, it was first called the Green Mountain Tavern. It was one of three taverns in the town that served people journeying to their new homes on the frontier.

Dr. Jonas Fay, Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, and Thomas Chittenden were some of the patriots that gathered in the Catamount’s rooms. They plotted the course of the Green Mountain Boys, the Council of Safety, and later the government of the new Republic of Vermont.

Westminster Massacre

The Westminster confrontation was a continuation of the Grants vs. Yorkers dispute. The farmers needed to put off their creditors until the fall harvest when they would have money to pay off their debts. They resented the New York land speculators they owed and feared being jailed or losing their land.

Up until this time, most Grants settlers on the east side of the Green Mountains had peacefully negotiated any disputes with New York.

When one hundred unarmed farmers occupying the county courthouse at Westminster refused to leave, a Yorker sheriff ordered his men to shoot them. Panic ensued and forty men, including the wounded, were herded like animals into the courthouse jail and left to die.

Massachusetts and New Hampshire militia came to the farmers’ aid the next day and arrested the sheriff. The Westminster Massacre of March 13, 1775 is viewed by some as the first battle of the American Revolution.

They had not been enthusiastic supporters of the Green Mountain Boys. The New York sheriff’s actions changed their minds, and they were happy when Ethan Allen’s men rode into town the next day.

Green Mountain Boys in the American Revolution

Under the joint command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, the Green Mountain Boys immediately joined the Revolution.

(Benedict Arnold, later known as a traitor during the American Revolution, was an important part of fighting for the American cause. He created a navy for Lake Champlain, battled the British at Valcour Island, and burned the boats in what is now Arnold Bay during retreat from that battle, effectively stopping the British from gaining a foothold in the area.)

A Green Mountain Boys regiment was authorized by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1775 and they became part of the Continental Army (they were part of the Northern Army).

Control of Lake Champlain was a crucial military objective during the Revolutionary War.

The British strategy was to unite their Canadian forces with those in New York. If they succeeded they would cut off New York and New England from the other colonies.

The Champlain Valley was the site of several bloody encounters. Settlers in this no man’s land fled their homes for the duration of the war, fearful of the British and their Iroquois Indian allies.

The British had several victories, but the Americans fought hard and delayed their advance south. These delays allowed the American armies to regroup.

When the British were defeated at Bennington and again at Saratoga, they gave up their plan to control Lake Champlain.

This was a turning point in the war, as it allowed the Continental Army to turn southward and convinced France to enter the war as an ally of the Americans.

Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen (born January 21, 1738, Litchfield, Connecticut – died February 12, 1789, Burlington, Vermont) was a soldier and frontiersman, and leader of the Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolution.

After fighting in the French and Indian War (1754–63), Allen settled in what is now Vermont. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, he raised his force of Green Mountain Boys (organized in 1770) and Connecticut troops and helped capture the British fort at Ticonderoga, New York (May 10, 1775).

Later, as a volunteer in General Philip Schuyler’s forces, he attempted to take Montreal (September 1775), in the course of which he was captured by the British and held prisoner until May 6, 1778.

Congress gave Allen the brevet rank of colonel with back pay, but he did not serve in the war after his release. Instead, he devoted his time to local affairs in Vermont, especially working for separate statehood from New York. Failing to achieve this, he attempted to negotiate the annexation of Vermont to Canada.

Vermont Statehood

It was not a certainty in 1777 that Vermont would become the fourteenth state in the Union. America was still at war and victory wasn’t assured. New York, an important part of the American effort, wasn’t going to give up title to the Grants without a fight.

Vermont didn’t improve its chances of acceptance when it began negotiating with Great Britain to become part of greater Canada. The American Congress was suspicious of the new republic and became even more frustrated when Vermont tried to annex more lands—this time from New Hampshire.

Finally, in 1790 New York and Vermont settled their long-standing differences over the Grants. In January 1791 Vermont delegates met in Bennington and ratified the US Constitution. On March 4, 1791, Vermont was accepted into the United States of America, as the fourteenth state.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Green Mountain Boys:

Click to access Green-Mountain-Boys-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Green-Mountain-Boys.pdf